Time and Time Again
by TheShamanMaster
Summary: On a blind date with a unknown hedgehog set up by Vector, Tails enjoys a night in a local bar. But, why does this girl seem so familiar? Tails x ? OneShot.


Time and Time Again, a Sonic the Hedgehog fanfiction

"So, what are you planning on doing with your life?"

It's something I get asked a lot. I mean what exactly do I say this? I'm the sidekick to one of the world's greatest heroes and I invent things, what else is there?

"Tails, what exactly do you do?"

She asks me the question again, snapping me out of a quick day dream.

"I'm a mechanic. I'm the one who builds planes to fly for Sonic the Hedgehog; I'm the one who builds the technology to go against Eggman at whatever the cost, even if it does cost me my life."

She seems taken aback by my answer. "You say it like you really don't care what happens in the end."

"Maybe a bit of cynicism is what you need to get you through life. That way, when the worst happens, you won't be disappointed…"

She takes another sip of wine slowly, narrowing her eyes. She places the glass down, little by little using her finger to draw circles on the rim of the glass.

Let me rewind a bit here. I haven't seen my friends in so long, in fact, make that about three years. Knuckles doesn't tell me anything. Amy Rose disappears, and Sonic goes globe-trotting. Not one phone call, email or even letter from them. Then suddenly out of the blue, I get a phone call from the Chaotix team, and pretty soon I'm spending a lot of my time with these guys. Eventually one weekend, Vector tells me about blind dating. I'm kind of against the idea initially but hey, what have I got to lose? So I let him and the others set me up on one and here I am.

The girl, or should I say hedgehog, is named Emilia Dusk. She appears wearing dark glasses, a hood, and black skinny jeans. I guess she took the meaning of the term too far; I can barely make her out at all (except for some strands of purple and blue hair coming out of her hood). Either that or maybe she's really insecure about the way she looks.

So far the night has gone pretty well, if you can call it that. We've had dinner in this fancy Vietnamese restaurant and now we're in a bar.

"Tell me." I ask her. "Have you ever expected the worst?"

"In what sense?"

"I don't know, like you knew something wasn't going to go right…"

She shrugs. "Can't say that I have. Well, there was that time with an ex of mine. He promised a lot, only to let me down after so long."

"Oh really? How long were you together?

"We were dating for two years almost. One day, he said he was no longer attracted to me. I guess things don't last forever. It was a good run though, but I had the feeling that it was just never going to work despite all my years of chasing him."

I only wonder where this is going. I haven't really found out much from her at this point, only that she works down in Station Square at one of the local beauty parlours. I've been past all of them at least once and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen anyone who looks like a purple hedgehog work there.

Is she lying? Heck, I can't be asked to argue right now. I take another sip of alcohol.

"How about you? Any broken promises?"

"Well not really." I begin slowly. "But I have seen a lot in the last ten years; where do I begin? Let's see; A battle with a liquid monster, a confrontation with a clone of Sonic, a robot trying to rule the world, Eggman using a theme park to try and kidnap little aliens from another world and finally, an inter-dimensional time monster trying to destroy both the past and the present."

"Wow that does sound like quite the adventure you've had huh?"

"Well I'd just like to think that my life is quite fun at times." I chuckle while scratching the back of my head. Damn it Tails, this is no time to act childish, and you're 19 for crying out loud!

Dusk giggles. "You're kind of cute, Tails."

I can't help but blush. "Heh, well I try to be." I'm getting the strangest case of déjà vu right now. I swear I have met her before but where?

"Do you know a girl called Cream?"

"Yes, why?"

"Ah." Dusk smiles. "You see Cream is one of my regulars when she wants to come have a spa day at where I work. The girl talks about her friends all the time and she often mentions a fox called Tails, so I had a feeling it was you."

"Really?" Again, like many of my friends, I've not seen Cream in years. Last I heard, her mother was sending her off to some fancy private college somewhere to get a good education.

"Yep, for a 17 year old, she's quite the chatty one that's for sure, but she has fantastic manners, and that's always a good quality to have."

I remember Cream having a crush on me for years which I remember being cute at the time. Nothing really came of it though; I guess I felt we were too different really.

"That's true indeed. What do you do when you're not at work?"

"I read often, but with all the extra hours I'm doing on the weekend I've not really had time to settle down and enjoy a good book. Last thing I read was Genesis by Patrica Cornwall."

I raise my eyebrow at her taste in books. "You like those violent crime thrillers?"

"I like being kept in anticipation in what happens to the main characters. They get placed in such situation it's always a surprise to see how they'll get out of it."

"So I take it you've read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?"

"Oh no." She replies half-heartedly. "I've been told it's quite dark but I'll eventually get around to it. Other times I'm usually out and about having drinks with the girls. Speaking of which, I was at this club a few weeks back with the girls. There was this real player trying to get off with this cat named Blaze. He was a silver hedgehog and by god, he looked a wreck."

"You mean Silver?" What ever happened to him? By the sound of things, it doesn't sound too good.

"That his name? He should change his name to 'slime-ball!' I've never seen a guy act the way he does."

"Well when I knew him, he was a decent sort of guy. He always kept himself to himself. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a loner or nothing, just never really opened up to people."

My attention is suddenly drawn to the rest of her. Call me perverted, but I'd like to see what she'd like wearing different clothing. She's wearing such baggy clothing I'm thinking that she could be fat or slightly chubby. Then again, she managed to fit into skinny jeans so I guess that means something. There's just something about a girl wearing an oversized hoody that I think is attractive, coupled with messy hair, and no make-up. Yeah you can call me weird for having strange taste in girls, but I've always enjoyed natural beauty on the opposite sex, not heavy make-up or wearing slutty outfits.

"Hello? Earth to Tails?"

She snaps me out of it. "Huh? Oh sorry I was lost there, what were you saying?"

"I was asking, what do you and your friends get upto?"

"Oh right. Um, I'm friends with the infamous Chaotix Detective Agency."

"I've heard of them, what are they like?"

I laugh a little. "Well, I can say this; they're probably one of the strangest groups of people you'll ever meet. Vector, he's the life of the party; always loud, playing music but has this strange obsession with money and solving cases. Espio is the mysterious type; he'll voice his opinion and will often be the one who talks the most sense. Charmy is the youngest, so he's a bit childish and immature at times but I guess you can he helps balance out the groups dynamics a lot better. Finally we have Mighty, I don't know much about the guy personally but he's always a laugh when I chat to him and he's a pretty reliable guy too."

Dusk takes another sip of wine. "I've always had a fangirl crush on Espio; I love mysterious guys!"

"Then you would have loved Shadow."

"Is he-"

"-yeah, Sonic's double. Or should I say often mistaken for him. He's an alright guy, very different from when we first met him. It's been a long time, but I'm sure he's out there still trying to find his purpose in life. I mean he lost the only person that was closest to him, a girl named Maria."

"So, were they lovers do you think?"

"Not really. I wouldn't say lovers as such, but they were pretty close to one another."

"Hm..interesting…he sounds like a strange one alright." Dusk shuffles in her seat slightly get to more comfortable. "You're a pretty interesting guy Tails. You know quite a bit and being a sidekick to Sonic the Hedgehog…" She pauses abruptly. "…that's pretty awesome."

I notice when she says his name, she does it very slowly, like there's a hint of anger in her voice. It sounds like she might have had a run in Sonic before. I don't remember Sonic ever mentioning he met a girl by the name of Emilia. So, why does this feel so familiar? I don't know, maybe it's the alcohol talking.

Dusk looks down and gazes at her watch, noticing the time.

"Oh my, is that the time already? I've got work in the morning."

I look at my own watch. It's 10:59pm. Both of us stand up, getting ready to leave.

"Thanks for tonight, I've had a great time, Emilia."

Dusk giggles. "Aww. Thank you for a great time too!"

We hug each other, and I slowly lean into kiss her, she accepts the gesture and kisses me softly on the lips. The smell of her perfume lingering. I know I've smelled that somewhere before, but where? The kiss is soft, delicate, and sweet even. It's over in a heartbeat but it's so nice I don't want it to end. She places her forefinger on my lips and smiles.

"Thank you for an interesting evening, Tails. Goodnight."

"Oh Miss Dusk…"

She stops as she's about to leave the bar.

"I was wondering, is that your real name? Because I've had the strangest case of déjà vu ever since I met you tonight…"

"No."

"Hm? So who are you?"

She turns around to me, removing her glasses and taking off her hood. I never would have believed it was her of all people.

"You're right. It was an alias. You remember me don't you, Tails?"

"Amy Rose? They said you were…"

She nods slowly. "I know, and I'm sorry for deceiving you but I have my reasons. For the record, you didn't see me tonight okay? I'll be in touch with you soon alright?"

"Sure." I respond softly. "Thank you…Emilia."

Moments later I leave the bar, contemplating everything that has happened tonight. I wonder where she had been all these years. Asking her will probably get me nowhere.

Two days later I end up going out again, this time with Vector and the crew. We go to a bar, get utterly wasted before crawling home to our beds the following morning. I wake remembering I had made out with two racoon girls (both twins from what I can recollect), the taste of tobacco lingering in my mouth. Damn, I do not like girls who smoke.

Hung over as anything, the phone starts ringing. I'm not in the mood for a ringing phone first thing in the morning, especially with a pounding headache. Rolling over, I pick up the receiver.

"…ugh..hello?"

"Tails, is that you?"

"Amy? What's up?"

She takes a deep breath. "Look, I'm going to be honest with you about what happened to me. I think you of all people should know the truth…"

I sit up slowly, listening to what she has to say. Needless to say, this turns out to be one of the most surprising stories I have ever heard.

FIN

A/N: A little something I composed out of boredom the other week during one of my classes. I wanted to have an older, mature Tails be the narrator of this story. As for what happened to the other characters? I'm planning a prequel and possibly a sequel to go into more to what happened to Amy Rose, along with the other characters. Feedback is very much welcome.


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